Shadow Game (Book Three)
by Blue-Eyes Black Wolf
Summary: Trouble is certainly brewing as the Titans begin to discover that DS' war with the Elementals goes FAR beyond Jump City. As for the Wolfman, his race against Death becomes further complicated upon discovering details about his friends' pasts. A twisted tournament, a nationwide cleansing, a super soldier project, an impossible love, for the Wolfman, the games have only just begun.
1. Third Time's A Charm

"Right this way, Champions", said James, the butler who had been tasked to escort us down a series of hallways. He appeared to be a tall, slender, black man with a short haircut, and dressed in a tuxedo. Since the four of us had no idea where we were, why we were there, or how to get back home, for now, we had no choice but to play along and follow James.

As we followed behind him down a rather dimly-lit hallway, the dark samurai, who appeared to be mute as he hadn't said a word to anybody since we arrived, led the way for the rest of us as he used his enchanted sword as a crude flashlight, lighting our path with its enchanted, blue glow. As for the rest of us, Rey followed close behind the samurai, as he wasn't particularly trusting of him, while Star hung in the back with me, as the two of us partook in an awkward ice-breaking conversation for the sake of "catching up".

"So, what do you make of these guys", asked Star in a low voice that was just barely above a whisper.

"We seem to be safe for the moment. For now, all we can do is trust this James character", I replied back to her as her respective spiral began to burn onto my torso.

"Really? How do you know for certain?"

"I don't, but as the saying goes, "keep your friends close, and your enemies closer"."

"Is this the part where I'm supposed to start trusting you? Why is it that every time you get mixed up in one of your little adventures, you have to drag me into them with you", asked Star in reference to the fact that her association with me is ultimately the sole reason why she became a mutant in the first place. In response to her below-the-belt comment, I hesitated for a moment before responding.

"Look", I began with a muffled growl, "I protected you before "us", I protected you during "us", and just as I've done over the past several years, I will continue to protect you now that there is no more "us"", I said before picking up speed to walk beside Rey.

"You're still as boring as ever", muffled Star under her breath as I walked away from her. As I did so, it was at this point that I noticed my forehead beginning to burn. Unlike my spirals, whose burning was more of a painless annoyance than anything, the burning of my forehead was beginning to give me a bit of a headache, though not a very severe one.

"*snarl, growl, growl", asked Rey to me as I joined his side.

"Yeah, I'm okay", I responded to him as I rubbed my forehead. I wasn't lying to Raven when I told her that Rey couldn't speak English, or any human language for that matter. He could only speak in a series of growls, and snarls, giving us a sort of Groot-Rocket Raccoon relationship, as I was one of the few individuals who was able to understand and converse with him. As for why he speaks the way he does, I have no idea.

Rey's origins are a complete and utter mystery. I had first met him six years ago in Box Elder, when I was more-or-less drafted into Bigby's Pack. Rey, as well as Maury, had been members of Bigby's Pack for only a couple of months before I arrived. As for Rey's life before meeting Bigby, I have no idea. I have read Rey's mind a great many times before the last time I saw him, and it would seem that somehow, someway, his memories were erased, so not even he, himself knew anything of his life before joining the Pack. The only things he knew were his name, what he was, and basic survival, and social instincts. Everything else was a giant blur. The only fortunate side to his situation was the fact that despite his severe memory loss, Rey was quite content with having very few memories of his past, as he tended to only look towards the future, and live for today anyway.

"*growl, low snarl."

"Not sure what I was thinking back then. The power of boners is a powerful thing, I guess", I responded to Rey in reference to the choice I made all those years ago to make Star my mate.

"*low, yet sharp growl, growl."

"Yep, she is. With a capital S." The five of us continued down the seemingly eternal hallway for about another ten minutes before reaching another small room at the end. Inside the room was nothing but three walls, and four, circular platforms on the floor, all lined up next to each other and parallel to the room's entryway.

"We have arrived, Champions of the Southern Hall", said James with a bow as he turned back to face us.

"So there's sixteen of us", I asked to James.

"Where'd you come up with sixteen", asked Star.

"Well, since we're the Champions of the _Southern_ Hall, it stands to reason that there is a Northern, Western, and Eastern Hall as well, each with four other Champions."

"That is correct", began James. "You all are four of the sixteen individuals chosen to compete in the Master's tournament. He, and the other Champions await you above our current location", he continued as he motioned towards the platforms. In response to the butler's comment, Rey began cracking his knuckles, while the nameless samurai returned his enchanted sword to its sheath.

"So, we're supposed to stand on these things", asked Star. "Who's going where?"

"I don't think there's a _wrong_ choice", I said as the samurai took his place on the third platform from the left. Upon seeing him select his choice, Star then rushes ahead of me, and Rey, claiming the platform on the far left, away from the samurai.

"*low snarl", said Rey to me as he claimed his spot in between the other two Champions.

 _Thanks, Rey_ , I thought to myself as I claimed the platform on the far right, grateful for the fact that I didn't have to stand next to Star. Once we took our places, the four platforms then began to make their way up through the ceiling as if we had all stepped onto a crude elevator. We eventually found ourselves in what looked like a large ballroom, complete with windows on the ceiling (it was worth noting that all that could be seen through the windows was a starry sky, confirming that we were nowhere near Jump City at this point).

Directly across from the four of us, another portion of the floor opened up as what I assumed were the Champions of the Northern Hall appeared on their own set of four, circular platforms. Just as we were, these four Champions were all diverse and unique individuals from different walks of life. It was also at this point I noticed that two of these four Northern Champions were also people I recognized. Standing on the second platform from the right (our left), oddly enough, was none other than Dakota City's own Gear. Standing on the platform to Gear's left was another blast from my love life's past, Julia Kaluza, who unlike Star, wasn't as fortunate when it came to her mutation.

Unlike Star, who could turn her mutation on and off (Star's mutation allowed her to significantly increase her muscle mass, as well as grow an extra pair of arms, to the point where she looks like a Shokan), Julia's mutation permanently altered her body, as she stood before the rest of us as a 5'4 cat-woman, to the point where she looked an awful lot like the infamous supervillain simply known as Cheetah. Fortunately for Julia, she and Cheetah had obvious differences in their appearance. Cheetah was known for having dirty blondish fur, which covered her entire body (to the point where she, like Julia, abandoned the use of clothes), small, brown spots, a tail, and blue eyes. Julia on the other hand, had dark orange, tiger-like fur, large, black spots on the majority of her body, except for her tail, which had stripes, and yellowish-green eyes.

As for the other two Champions, the one on the platform to Gear's right was what appeared to be a white man with a skintight gray shirt, black skinny jeans, gray tennis shoes, gray, fingerless gloves, spiky, orange hair, and a pair of blue goggles on his head. The Champion to Julia's left, was what appeared to be a large robot, as his entire body consisted of metal. He was about 6'5, had a face that kinda made him look like the offspring of Vin Diesel, and Arnold Schwarzenegger, a pointed head, which made him look like he had a Tristan Taylor-like hairstyle, and the build of a gorilla.

"Crikey, what a Freak Show", muttered the goggle-head in reference to the random assortment of people in the room, revealing that he had an Australian accent in the process. It was then that the floor opened up yet again off to the side, as the Champions of the Western Hall made their appearance. This time, only one Champion was recognizable to me.

Not surprisingly, on the platform closest to the Australian goggle-head, stood Gear's buddy, Static. To his right, stood what looked like a Japanese schoolgirl with pigtails as she was wearing a red, flannel skirt, black tennis shoes, a white, collared shirt, and a red bowtie. However, upon taking a closer look at her, I soon discovered that it was, in actuality, a late-twenty-something grown woman who just happened to be vertically challenged. Despite her being an even five feet tall, this woman was "blessed" with at _least_ a DD cup size, and her skirt was short enough to the point where she could pass as a Sailor Scout.

To _her_ right was a fifty-something looking man with gray hair, who wore nothing but a pair of leopard-print leather pants. What stood about him, however, was his scent, as his body wreaked of rot, and decay. Unlike most of the rest of us, who were all members of "the living", this man was a member of what most would call, "the walking dead". This was confirmed upon hearing the sound of a growl rumbling in Rey's chest upon making eye contact with this man.

And finally, to the zombie's right, was another person of Asian descent. This person was also male, and appeared to be about the age of thirty-something. He had greasy, spiky, black hair (similar to that of Robin's), black jeans, no shirt (because clearly a shirt wasn't required), Japanese-style sandals on his feet, and a pair of black boxing gloves on his hands.

"Oh, there you are, Static", said Gear to his friend with a wave.

"Sorry I'm late", he began in response, "just thought I'd bring a few friends with me", he continued jokingly as he pointed to the three other Champions to his right. In response to his joke, the boxer, and zombie shot him a glare out the corners of their eyes. "Or not", he retorted sarcastically in response to their rude death glares. In response to Static's sarcasm, the schoolgirl giggled, as she was apparently the only one to find him funny.

"Alright, Mates", began the goggle-head as the floor opened up once again across from Static's group, "let's see what behind Door Number Four." Up from the floor came the Champions of the Eastern Hall, three men, and one woman.

The lone female, who stood on the second platform from the left (directly across from the schoolgirl), was a rather tall, white woman, as she was about 7 ½ feet tall, and that wasn't including the light blue, steel high heels she wore. She also had a pair of light blue, skintight, leather pants, a light blue, skintight crop top, black lipstick, and silver hair.

To her right, stood another shirtless man of Asian descent, who seemed to about the same age as the boxer. However, he had a darker skin tone, revealing that he was from a different part of Asia. He had short, black hair, black pants with pictures of Chinese dragons wrapped around his legs, a red sash around his waist, and no shoes on his feet.

On the platform on the far right, directly across from the Asian boxer, stood a black man with dreads, though his were tied in the back of his head with a purple scrunchie. I remember being a fan of his taste in colors and wardrobe, as he wore a purple, sleeveless shirt, black gym shorts, black tennis shoes with red stripes, a pair of purple wrist bands, and a pair of purple sunglasses.

And lastly, standing in between the black guy, and the white woman, was the only of the four Eastern Champions that I recognized, as he was from the same city I was zapped from. The large monster of a man exchanged growls with me as he looked over and made eye contact with me.

"What're you doing here", asked Mammoth as he pointed to me.

"Funny, I was going to ask you the same thing", I retorted.

"Settle down, Mon", said the black dude as he waved us off, mostly likely because he was the only thing standing between us. It was at this point I noticed that he appeared to have a Jamaican accent. Before Mammoth and I could lash out at each other any further, the Master appeared before us via another white flash as he appeared on top of a large pedestal with a large flight of stairs leading to the top behind the Northern Champions. Behind him was a large jumbotron that hung on the far wall of the ballroom, and on his shoulder, for some reason, was a Northern Spotted Owl.

"The Tournament of Unity, a friendly competition between the world's greatest, lesser-known Champions", he began as his red amulet began to glow white, which activated the jumbotron. The screen then began playing individual footage of all of the contestants, as he had apparently been watching us. The footage used in the clipshow ranged anywhere from practicing our fighting talents on dummies, training in remote areas, in the case of Mammoth, destroying a fleet of robots, in the cases of Static, and Gear, fighting battles with supervillains (Static's footage showed him fighting Permafrost, while Gear's showed him fighting what looked like an orange bird-woman), or in my case, fighting off an army of robotic, zombie moths. As the footage played, the Master narrated over it in a dramatic, presentation fashion as he introduced each Champion, beginning with the Australian goggle-head, and going around the room clockwise, ending with Static.

"Boomerang, a wind elemental whose powerful kicks can create tornadoes. Gear, the boy genius with a gadget for any possible obstacle. Jaglia, half-woman, half-jaguar, but all-ferocity. JT006, a highly weaponized robot locked and loaded for battle. Larsun, the man on fire straight from the underground of Hong Kong. Madame Nebula, the Russian Amazon kickboxer with star-quality legs. Mammoth, a giant of a man that'll have you on the Endangered Species List. Rico, the funky, dancing fool who breaks bones as quickly as he "breaks it down". Wolfman, the Big Bad Wolf from the darkest of shadows. Roninjitsu, a masked, samurai warrior whose enchanted tachi blade will cut you down to size. Reymundo, the feline, pro wrestler who reigns as King of the Ring. Starsmash, the female embodiment of brute force and rage. Jinzo, the lightning-fast boxer with a thunderous knockout blow. Bruno, the wandering brawler that gives even Death a run for his money. Xing Xang, the Japanese small-fry with a _large_ appetite for combat. And Static, the electrifying sparkplug that'll give you _quite_ the shock. Sixteen brave, and worthy Champions, but only two shall win."

"Wait, _two_ Champions", asked Jaglia, who shared the same confusion as the rest of us.

"What? Is dis a tag-team tournament", chimed Rico.

"Correct, Champions", replied the Master. "Unlike the Tournament of Heroes, and the Tournament of Heroines, the Tournament of Unity is to see how well Champions can work _together_ in battle."

 _No wonder the other Elementals aren't here_ , I thought to myself. _That would've been too easy._

"So then, who von the other two tournaments", asked Madame Nebula.

"Behold", began the Master of Games, "the Champion of Heroes, and the Champion of Heroines", he continued as he motioned to his right, and left respectively. In response to his words, two holographic images of the two previous Champions appeared, which he then introduced to us by way of narration. "Robin, the combat-equipped, Kung-Fu-trained, one-man army, and Terra, the terrakinetic she-devil who can bend the very planet to her will." I gasped upon the Master revealing the image of Terra. This wasn't because of the fact that she won her tournament (if the Master knew about me, then he must've known about the Robin, the Teen Titans, and by extension, Terra), but because instead of the Master showing me a picture of a girl with black hair, and brown eyes, he instead showed a girl with blonde hair, and blue eyes.

 _That's her! She's that girl_ , I exclaimed to myself in my head upon realizing that Terra was the mysterious blonde girl from my "Beauty and the Beast" dream, which further confused me, as it still didn't make sense how I was able to have a dream about her before ever having met her. My inner thoughts were interrupted upon the Master continuing to describe the details of the tournament.

"Just as Robin, and Terra discovered, when the tournament is complete, there will be magnificent prizes. And of course, the winners shall prove that they are the greatest tag-team heroes on Earth. However, any who do _not_ wish to compete, need only say the word, and I shall return you home at once." Upon hearing that we were given the choice of whether or not to compete, the majority of us began discussing amongst themselves. As for me, the answer was obvious.

It was hardly coincidental that I would run into both Static, and Gear just hours after my council meeting with Andre, and Yea Seul, nor was it merely coincidental that Terra also had a connection with this particular tournament. There was also the fact that Robin seemed to have competed and survived, this tournament reunited me with Rey after not seeing him for six years, it offered a possible rematch with Mammoth, as well as the opportunity to show off to both Star, and Julia, after not seeing them for the past few years. All of that wasn't even mentioning the fact that I still had only a couple of weeks left to live, so a fighting tournament against a bunch of super-powered strangers sounded like fun.

"Looks like we're in", I said to the Master upon the discussions coming to an end. My assumptions were confirmed upon nobody requesting to leave.

"The challenge is accepted", began the Master. "The tournament begins. Prepare for competition", he continues as his amulet begins to glow white again. It then flashes once again as the Master and his owl disappear from the room. With the both of them gone for the moment, the sixteen of us began to mingle amongst each other while we waited for the tournament to begin. Rey and I stood off to the side catching up with each other about the past six years. Apparently he had made a name for himself in the Underground Wrestling Circuit (UWC), as the likelihood of any mainstream wrestling organization taking in a nahual was extremely slim. In addition, it seemed that Julia, and Star had accepted their mutations enough to where they decided to use them to fight crime, hence their superhero names.

"I'm telling you, that's not the same guy", said Static to Gear as I overheard the two of them talking.

"How do you know?"

"Because I met Robin, and he doesn't look like that", continued Static in reference to the holographic picture of Robin from earlier."

"Well how many other masked dudes in capes do you know that work with Batman and are named, "Robin"?"

"Good question", I said to myself aloud as I used my powers to get a sneak peek into Static's mind. It was then that I witnessed a third-person memory of Static (who wore a costume different from his current one) meeting both Batman, and Robin for the first time. Apparently he met the two of them in a hospital room in the middle of a stormy night, as I witnessed Static standing over a mutant laughing uncontrollably in his bed as thunder and lightning clashed in the sky.

"What did this to you", asked Static to himself as he stood over the mutant.

"Not "what", _"who"_ ", corrected Batman, accompanied by someone claiming to be Robin, from the shadows behind Static, as he had apparently managed to sneak in from behind. The lightning from outside played right into his hands as its flash made his reveal that much more dramatic.

"Batman", exclaimed Static in shock, as he wasn't expecting Batman be to in Dakota of all places. Batman simply walked past Static to tend to the mutant, completely ignoring the young hero as he did so.

"50% drama, 50% anti-social", I said sarcastically upon witnessing Batman's cold shoulder, reminding me of _my_ first run-in with him.

"Hi, it's Static, isn't it", asked Batman's accomplice as he approached Static and offered to shake his hand. His voice alone already told me that he and the Robin I knew were _not_ the same person. There was also the fact that this Robin's hair wasn't _nearly_ as spiky, nor was he as short, as this Robin was about two inches taller than the one I knew. Despite that though, it was easy to see how someone could confuse the two Robins, as their outfits were shockingly similar, revealing that Batman truly did at some point train two young men, who both bear the superhero name of Robin. This Robin's was basically the same as the other's, except that instead of green pants, green gloves, and green sleeves, he instead had red pants, black gloves, and black sleeves.

"Okay, but who came first", I asked myself as I fast-forwarded to a later memory. This one showed Static in what I assumed was the legendary Bat Cave, as he stood over Batman as he sat at a computer screen. "Whoa", I said in awe as I took a look around the cave. "I guess it's safe to assume the rumors about Static are true."

"Nice crib", said Static to Batman, as he was apparently just as in awe about the Bat Cave as I was.

"How're you feeling, Virgil", asked Batman, once again ignoring what Static had initially said.

"You know", asked Static in shock.

"Oops", I said to myself as I felt guilty for learning Static's true identity.

"I guess you really are the world's greatest detective", continued Static. Batman simply responded to Static's fanboy praise by handing him what looked like a card. Upon seeing this, I moved towards them for a closer look.

"It fell out of your pocket", said Batman as I discovered that it was Static's school I.D. card that he was given. "You probably shouldn't carry that while you're in uniform." I couldn't help but notice that Static's real name was Virgil Hawkins, as he was apparently a student, at least at the time of this particular memory, at Dakota High School.

"Uh, right, *clears throat", replies Static awkwardly as he returns his I.D. card to a pocket on the inside of his jacket. "So, where's Robin", he continues in an attempt to change the subject.

"With the Titans", said Batman as he continued to type, never stopping to look at Static as they conversed. It was during this moment I noticed an irregular heartbeat coming from Batman, suggesting that he was lying.

"The who", asked Static.

"You'll meet 'em someday." Batman and Static then continued working on whatever case they had been working on.

"I guess it's technically not a lie", I said to myself as it seemed that Batman was playing a word game with Static. Batman had simply said that Robin was with the Titans, but he never said that he was necessarily talking about the _same_ Robin. I exited Static's mind upon hearing the sound of Rey snarling at me. "You say something", I asked him upon returning to our conversation.

"Still invading other people's privacy", taunted Star as she and Julia walked over to join us.

"Hello, again, Fernando", said Julia.

"Julia", I responded. "You look good", I continued out of obligation, though to be fair, despite being covered in fur, she still did look good.

"As do you", she replied. I noticed immediately a difference in attitude from Julia since I last saw her. Unlike Star, whose mutation made her bitter, Julia seemed to have been humbled by her mutation, which was rather refreshing considering how shallow she was as a child.

"Oh, please, he looks like he put on a few pounds", chimed Star.

"Ugh, remind me why I dated you again", I said with a groan.

"It's because you were a horny, little boy like everyone else", teased Star.

"I was being rhetorical, Star." Before Star had a chance to tease me further, Julia jumped into the mix, moving the conversation forward.

"So what's the game plan?"

"Normally I would pick the brains of the other contestants", I began, "but, I've got some business to discuss with Static. If you guys would like to help me out with that, it'd be much appreciated."

"And why should we help you", asked Star.

"Look, do you have a problem with me, Star?"

"No, not at all", she began sarcastically. "Why would I have a problem with my ex-boyfriend who is the sole reason I became—", she continued before I interrupted her.

"If you're about to guilt trip me again about your mutation, save it. I'm sick to death of your ungrateful whining."

"Ungrateful? You think I wanted this? You think I asked for this? Do you have any idea what it's like to have a monster living inside of you", she asked as she tapped into her powers. With her powers now turned on she stood before the rest of us as a seven-foot tall, four-armed woman with maroon skin, and crimson red, demon eyes.

"You must not know me very well if you're seriously asking me that", I retorted in reference to the fact that Star was currently conversing with a werewolf. "But if it will finally put this issue to rest, for the millionth time, I am sorry. I'm sorry that I became attracted to you as a child. I'm sorry that I wanted to date you. I'm sorry that I wasn't as exciting as the other guys to keep you entertained. And I'm truly sorry that some asshole decided to wait until several months after we broke up to try and poison you with toxic fumes just to prove a point. There, you satisfied now?" Star simply walked away in a huff in response.

"*snarl, growl, snarl", said Rey to me as he put his hand on my shoulder. Fortunately for my sake, Julia chose to keep the conversation going, so we never had to address my awkward exchange with Star.

"What business do you have with Static?"

"This", I said as I pulled out my communicator and showed it to her, and Rey.

"What's that?"

"It's a communicator, proof that I am a member of the Teen Titans."

" _You're_ a Titan", asked Julia, as she apparently had heard of my teammates.

"*snarl, snarl, growl, snarl", said Rey as he had apparently seen one of our communicators before.

"Perhaps they were Titans, too", suggested Julia in response to Rey's comment. Rey's jaw dropped in shock upon Julia responding to him, though the conversation continued without him.

"Regardless, I have to talk to Static, as it seems there are at least two heroes on Earth who go by the name Robin."

"Then you go and talk to him, and I'll see what kind of dirt I can dig up", said Julia as she began to walk away. As she did so, I looked over at Rey as I noticed him tilting his head as he gawked at her rear. He corrected himself awkwardly as I cleared my throat, grabbing his attention.

"No need to be so jumpy, Rey. _She's_ a jaguar, _you're_ a jaguar, plus she's one of like four people who can even understand you."

"*snarl, growl, growl?"

"Dude, we were in middle school. If you like her then go get her."

"*sharp, low growl", he replied as we fist-bumped one another. Rey then went off to join Julia as she conversed with the other participants.

"Did I hear that right", asked Static to me from off to the side. As I turned to face him, he, and Gear approached me. The first thing I noticed about them was the fact that they both were the same height as I was. "Are there really two Robins?"

"Apparently", I replied with a shrug.

"Family reunions must be confusing", said Gear jokingly.

"Hi, the name's Static. And this is my partner, Gear. We've heard good things about the Titans", said Static as he offered me his hand. Just as I had with Cyborg, Robin, and Starfire, I Changed my hand into a paw before grasping it.

"Wolfman, likewise", I replied as I shook his hand. Our handshake came to an abrupt end upon electrical sparks surging from our hands.

"Whoa", exclaimed Static in shock as he stepped back a bit. "Sorry about that", he continued, probably worried that he shocked me.

"Don't be", I said as I lifted my paw and flexed it. As I did so, the sparks danced around my claws. "It doesn't hurt", I continued as I Changed my paw back into a human hand. "I guess it's true, you _are_ a Class 5", I continued in reference to his powerful aura.

"Ha! Told 'ya so", teased Static to Gear.

"Whatever. I still think you're a 4", he retorted.

"You're just mad because you register as a Class 2."

"I'll remember that the next time Slipstream goes on a feeding frenzy", warned Gear.

"Speaking of which", began Static as he changed the subject, "what's your take on the contestants?"

"Welp, as per usual, all the other mutants here seem to be the standard Class 3, and 4, except for this guy", said Gear as he focused on me.

"Guess you're a Class 5, too", suggested Static. I simply nodded in response.

"Furthermore", continued Gear, "I count nine mutants, five humans, and two contestants listed as "other"."

"Zombies, and robots typically don't fall under the previous two categories", I added.

"So who's who", asked Static. Gear then prepared to determine which contestant were which, but I beat him to the punch as I already knew.

"The five human contestants consist of Madame Nebula, Mammoth, Rico, Roninjitsu, and Xing Xang. Everybody else, apart from JT006, and Bruno is a mutant."

"Uh, yeah, he's right", continued Gear upon Static looking to him for confirmation. The three of us then continued to exchange notes on what we observed about the mutant competitors based on the clip show of footage we all watched. There was Static, and Gear, whose powers I was already familiar with prior to meeting them, Rey, the nahual who specialized in wrestling, Star, the four-armed rage woman, Julia, who was a surviving victim of forced splicing, and then the four elemental-powered mutants consisting of Larsun, Boomerang, Jinzo, and myself. Obviously I was aware of my abilities as an Elemental, but as I later explained to Static, and Gear, the other three are what I began to start referring to as kinetics.

You see, any mutant with the correct combination of genes, or spellcaster with the proper training, could manipulate any one of the six elements. What separated the Elementals from the rest, was our range in doing so. The six of us were living embodiments of the elements, so we could utilize every single aspect of each element to its fullest potential, while kinetics often had limits on their abilities. Using the contestants as examples, let's start with Boomerang.

Boomerang, who specialized in kickboxing, could control the wind, but only through kicks, giving him a limit of what he was able to do, whereas Andre could summon tornadoes with his mind, and fly at supersonic speeds. Larsun, like Boomerang, specialized in kickboxing and could control the element of fire through the use of his feet. However, Larsun could _only_ use his feet, whereas Ryan can create flames from any part of his body. And finally, there was Jinzo, who specialized in boxing, and by extension Static. Both could bend the element of light, but only through the use of electricity. In fact, Jinzo had an even worse limitation than Static did, as he could only create electrical charges in his fists, which was ultimately why they were his choice of weapon. Asia on the other hand, could bend light in any form. She could either burn you to a crisp with a bolt of lightning, both bring, and take away life from a lightbulb, or draw energy from the sun, moon, or stars. The point was that nobody could bend the elements better than the Elementals themselves. Although, to Static's credit, as a Class 5 mutant, he still had tremendous power within him, just as Raven, and Terra did (despite Cyborg's claims of Terra being a Class 4).

"So that's how that works", said Static after I finished demonstrating my ability to manipulate electricity just as he could.

"The heck kind of werewolf are you", asked Gear.

"How's it going", asked Rico, interrupting as he walked over to join us. "Static, good to see you again, Mon", he said as he shook his hand.

"Um, have we met", asked Static.

"Not officially, but I believe you've had a few run-ins wit my kid brudda. Went by da name of Kangor for a while."

"So, Kangor has a brother", began Gear. "Should we be concerned", he asked jokingly.

"Champions", exclaimed the Master from an unknown location as his booming voice echoed throughout the room. "Round One draws near. The time has come to determine your teammates."


	2. Round One

As the sixteen of us gathered close together in the center of the circular platforms, the Master reappeared before us via another white flash. As he did so, the owl that was on his shoulder flew up towards the rafters under the ceiling, making its perch next to another owl, more specifically, a Great Horned Owl.

"Before the tournament may begin, me must first determine the pairings of us of you Champions", said the Master. He then went on with a long, dramatic explanation of how we were going to pick our teammates. Basically all we had to do was step up to a small podium that came out of the floor one by one. Once there, we would push the big, red button on it, which would activate a wheel (like the one you'd see on "Wheel of Fortune") that would appear on the jumbotron. After that, you'd push the button again to make the wheel stop, selecting your teammate depending upon where the pointer landed. It wasn't rocket science, so while the Master kept droning on and on, I was exchanging information with Jaglia towards the back of the group.

"So? What happened", whispered Jaglia to me.

"It's true, there really are two Robins."

"How do you know for sure?"

"My Robin is shorter. I read Static's mind, I saw it for myself."

"I see."

"So what have you found out?"

"Well, I'm pretty sure you've already determined who's a mutant, and who isn't."

"Naturally."

"As for what I've found out, of the sixteen contestants, half of us are martial arts experts."

"I see. Well as the Master pointed out, Rey is a wrestler, Jinzo's a boxer, and Boomerang, and Madame Nebula are both _kick_ boxers. Also it's also pretty safe to assume that Roninjitsu is a Kenjutsu swordsman, and Rico uses, I think it's called, Ca _pee_ ra."

"It's actually Ca _poei_ ra", corrected Jaglia, "but still, well done. As for the other two, Xing Xang is trained in Karate, and Larsun uses Kung-Fu. The rest of us pretty much wing it in battle."

"Hey, if it ain't broke", I replied jokingly in reference to my adaptive abilities.

"We shall proceed in alphabetical order", continued the Master, now finally moving the conversation forward. "That said, we shall begin with Boomerang. Come forth, Champion." As instructed, Boomerang then walked up to the podium and pushed the red button, causing the wheel to spin. The Master continued with his dramatic voice as the wheel began to slow down. "And the Champion partnered with the wind elemental will be…. the wandering brawler, Bruno." Upon hearing the Master's announcement, the zombie stepped forward to stand beside Boomerang.

"Guess that makes us the "B-Team"", joked Boomerang as he approached Bruno. In response to his bad joke, Bruno simply looked at him in silence. "Kidding", he continued as he offered him his hand. "Glad to have you aboard, Mate. I've got your back, provided you don't try to eat mine." Ultimately Boomerang's attempt at a zombie-related joke wasn't as successful as he had hoped, but based on the smirk on Bruno's face as he shook Boomerang's hand, I'm positive that he was simply happy that his teammate wasn't scared or judgmental of him.

"On to the second team", continued the Master. "Come forth, Champion Gear." Without hesitation, Gear walked forward and pushed the button. He then took his sweet time deciding when to push the button again, as we wound up waiting for about two minutes."

"Sometime this year would be nice, Mon", heckled an impatient Rico, though justifiably so.

"Just one…. more…. _now_ ", exclaimed Gear as he finally pushed the button. Based on what we were told about his intelligence, and the fact that he took his time to make his selection, and who he wound up getting paired with, it's pretty safe to assume that he somehow managed to calculate where, and how the wheel would stop, and therefore rigged his supposedly random selection.

"And the Champion partnered with the boy genius will be…. the electrifying sparkplug, Static." In response to the announcement, Static then walked over to stand beside Gear.

"Nice going", said Static as he high-fived Gear.

"Eh, it was nothing to it", gloated Gear.

"I was talking to Backpack", corrected Static jokingly (turns out that the backpack on Gear's back was sentient to some degree).

"Very funny." Backpack then added to their exchange with a series of beeping sounds. "Oh, hush", retorted Gear. Static couldn't help but chuckled in response to their exchange.

"On to the third team. Champion Jaglia, come forth", continued the Master, repeating the process yet again. Jaglia's selection resulted in her being paired with Star, aka Starsmash. The next three Champions to be called up were, in chronological order, Jinzo, JT006, and Madame Nebula, who wound up being paired with Larsun, Roninjitsu, and Xing Xang respectively. As a result, the four remaining Champions consisted of Mammoth, Rey, Rico, and myself.

"Guess I'm next", said Mammoth as he approached the button and pushed it, not waiting for the Master to call him up.

 _Ri-co, Ri-co, Ri-co, Ri-co_ , I chanted to myself in my head in a sort of prayer fashion. Partially it was because I wanted to be Rey's partner, but it was _mostly_ because I didn't want to be Mammoth's partner.

"And the Champion partnered with the human giant will be….", began the Master just before the wheel came to a stop.

 _Fuck me_ , I thought to myself with a groan as the wheel revealed Mammoth's selection.

"…. the Big and Bad, Wolfman", continued the Master.

"Yay", I muttered to myself unenthusiastically as I walked over to stand beside Mammoth.

"Just stay out of my way", warned Mammoth to me upon me standing beside him.

 _We are so gonna lose_ , I thought to myself as I rolled my eyes. There was no way in Hell we were going to win any fight if we couldn't work as a team, let alone an entire tournament.

"And finally, our eighth team will consist of the King of the Ring, and the dancing fool", continued the Master.

"Guess it's you and me den, Mon", said Rico as he high-fived Rey.

"*snarl, snarl."

"I'm going to take dat as a "yes"", said Rico in response to having no idea what his partner was saying.

"Champions", began the Master again, grabbing everyone's attention, "Round One. Face your opponents", he continued as his amulet began to glow white.

"And who, may I ask, _are_ our opponents", asked Boomerang. The Master simply continued on, initially ignoring Boomerang's question.

"Reymundo, and Rico, versus Boomerang, and Bruno", said the Master just before the room was filled with another white flash, which resulted in the four selected Champions disappearing from the room.

"Well, that answers that question", muttered Static jokingly.

"Madame Nebula, and Xing Xang, versus Jinzo, and Larsun", continued the Master before removing the four selected Champions from the room via another white flash.

"With our luck we'll probably end up fighting the girls' teams", said Gear jokingly to his partner.

"Gear, and Static, versus Jaglia, and Starsmash", continued the Master. Just before they disappeared, I noticed Static shoot Gear a sarcastic glare, as if to imply that he jinxed them. "Mammoth, and Wolfman, versus JT006, and Roninjitsu", continued the Master before the last white flash carried us out of the room to a new location.

This new location consisted of a tiny mountain plateau, though it was tall enough to where all you could see beyond the plateau was clouds. The plateau itself was only large enough to harbor a Japanese-style dojo/temple/shrine and a small courtyard. The courtyard, and the temple itself were surrounded by what appeared to be, at first glance, a forest of consisting completely of cherry blossom trees. However, because of how small the plateau was, the supposed "forest" in reality just a large, glorified garden, to the point where the outer edge of the tree line was also the edge of the plateau, meaning that unless you could fly, you couldn't go past them.

As we prepared to battle, the robot was the first to break the silence. I immediately noticed that he had a strange way of talking, even by robot standards.

"Opposing detected forces. Two acknowledged objective, targets sighted. Preparing combat for", said JT006 as he took a step towards me and Mammoth. Roninjitsu added on to his partner's intimidation gesture by drawing his sword and slicing it at the air, as if to psych himself up. In response to this, Mammoth and I kind of looked over at each other awkwardly, as if to ask each other, "what are we dealing with here?".

"Let the contest, begin", exclaimed the Master from an unknown location, cuing us to begin fighting. The robot made no hesitation to initiate the first attack as he lifted up his two fists, pointed them at me, and Mammoth, and then proceeded to fire two missiles.

"Holy shit", I exclaimed in shock as I lunged in front of Mammoth and blocked the attack with an aura shield. After the missiles exploded, from within my shield, Mammoth then rushes at me from behind and swats me to the right with his right arm, causing me to lose concentration and break my shield as I fly off to the right. "What the Hell was that", I asked my "teammate" hysterically after crashing onto the ground.

"Stay out of my way", roared Mammoth as he made a mad rush at JT006.

"Oh, you miserable, mother—", I began in irritation just before noticing Roninjitsu's sneak attack as he swung his sword at me. "Whoa", I exclaimed as I leapt out of the way, Changing into my wolf form as I did so. Upon landing, I turned to face the samurai as he dramatically pointed his sword at me. In response to this, I rose to my hind legs and tracted my claws. _Bring it_ , I thought to myself as I growled at him.

As expected, my one-on-one battle with Roninjitsu was a predictable slash fight, very similar to the ones I had with both Robin, and Red X. Fortunately for my sake, this meant I had plenty of practice fighting an opponent skilled in the martial arts, so I was more than prepared for Roninjitsu.

As my claws clashed with the samurai's sword, I would occasionally look over to see Mammoth swapping blows with his robotic opponent. Though he was able to hold his own against JT006, Mammoth was still a human, while the robot was made of metal, giving him a slight disadvantage in hand-to-hand combat. It also didn't help that JT006 was also equipped with rocket launchers, and machine guns.

"I gotta get over there", I muttered to myself as I watched Mammoth's fight take an unfortunate turn as JT006 fired a shower of bullets at him, forcing him to take cover behind the trees. Roninjitsu then takes advantage of the fact that I wasn't paying attention as kicks me square in the chest, causing me to crash into a tree behind me. After the crash, I looked up and noticed Roninjitsu stop in place and bring both his arms and sword closer to his body, to the point where the blade was both parallel to his body and in front of his face. It was then that his body began to spin rapidly, as if someone else had pulled a cord like he was a spinning top. He continues to spin faster, and faster for a few seconds, only to suddenly vanish into thin air. "Oh shit", I said to myself with an irritated groan. In the excitement of our battle, I had forgotten that the samurai was also a spellcaster.

"Ahhhh", hollered Mammoth from off to the side as I heard him crash into something. I then looked over to see Mammoth lying on his back as JT006 walked over to him with one of his fists pointed at him. He needed backup. My attention was drawn away from them as Roninjitsu, now having reappeared, swung his sword at my head for another sneak attack. Fortunately for my sake, not only was I able to duck in time to avoid being decapitated, but my animal instincts kicked in as the world around me began slowing down. As time began to slow down to a crawl, I noticed that Roninjitsu's blade had sliced through the tree I was leaning against upon missing its target. I also noticed that due to Roninjitsu's sneak attack failing, he was _super_ close to me, and his torso was completely exposed, making him vulnerable for a counterattack.

 _Gotcha_ , I thought to myself as volts of electricity sparked from my right paw, which I then balled into a fist. "Thunder Punch", I roared as my electrical fist slammed into Roninjitsu's stomach, essentially stunning him as he was thrown backwards a few feet. With him taken care of for the moment, I then turned my attention to the top half of the tree, as it began falling due to the sword cutting through it. As it began to fall, I teleported up to it, and positioned myself in midair to where I could put my paw on the bottom of the freshly-cut trunk. Once there, I propelled, and essentially threw the tree through the air like a crude javelin at JT006.

"Alarm", began JT006 as the world began to return to its normal speed. "Oncoming attack sneak. Evasive engaged countermeasures", he continued to himself as he swung his left arm at the flying tree, knocking it out of the air like a ball as his arm was not only strong enough to knock the tree away, but also to send it flying off of the edge of the plateau, crashing into and taking several other trees with it as there was now a gaping hole in the tree line as a result. With the robot now distracted, it offered Mammoth the opening he needed to jump back onto his feet and deliver an uppercut punch to the robot's chin.

"Are you hard of hearing or something", asked an irritated Mammoth to me as I landed on all fours. The sound of metal clanging could be heard as both of our metallic opponents crashed onto the ground.

"Oh, kiss my ass", I retorted with a snarl. "Whoa", I exclaimed yet again upon Roninjitsu's blade zooming over my head and sticking into what was left of the tree I was standing next to. I then managed to leap into another tree just in time as Roninjitsu attempted to deliver a flying kick to my right flank (to say that Roninjitsu was fast was a _huge_ fucking understatement). Roninjitsu then proceeded to retrieve his sword from the tree trunk, which then began to glow blue, and leap into the trees after me. What followed was a few moments of Roninjitsu chasing me through the treetops, slicing his sword at me the entire time while I struggled to leap, swing, and flip from tree to tree in an attempt to get out of the way (it was kinda like that shit you see in ninja flicks).

Just when it seemed like Roninjitsu was going to catch me, and force into facing his blade again (with the samurai slicing up all of the tree branches, I was running out of options), Mammoth initiated his own sneak attack as he, with very precise timing, rushes over and rams into a tree just as Roninjitsu landed in it, which caused him to wobble a bit as he paused to regain his balance. This distracted the samurai long enough for me to swing from another tree branch and deliver a flying parallel double kick to Roninjitsu's left flank, sending him flying out of the tree and landing on top of his partner, who was still struggling to recover from Mammoth's attack.

"There, now we're even", said Mammoth as I returned to the ground next to him.

"What do you mean, "even"?"

"I returned the favor, now stay out of my way."

"What are you, a broken record?"

"I don't need a Titan's help to win this. I can take the two of them."

"This isn't only about you", I argued as I began to growl at him.

"Targets range in", said JT006 as he returned to his feet and fired another rocket at us, forcing the two of us to duck as it exploded on the far other side of the courtyard.

"And don't you ever run out of those things", I asked the robot angrily. As I looked over, I noticed that Roninjitsu had also recovered and was preparing to close in yet again. "You know what? Fuck it", I said as I summoned a white light and flash it across the battlefield. As the flash passed, I found myself back in the Elemental Conference Room along with Mammoth.

"What the? Where are we", asked Mammoth, unsurprisingly. "Wasn't this an episode of "Spongebob"?"

"No, but I do get that a lot", I replied. "This is an illusionary dimension I created for the purposes of telepathic communication."

"So this is the inside of your head, huh? Pretty empty in here."

"I also get _that_ a lot", I muttered in irritation as I struggled to resist growling at him.

"Look, what are we even doing here?"

"I brought you here so we can talk."

"Who says I wanna talk to you?"

"Dude, what is your problem?"

" _You're_ my problem! I'm a member of the H.I.V.E. Five, and now I'm stuck with a Titan."

"Look, I didn't want to be your partner any more than you wanted to be mine, but none of that matters right now. This isn't about heroes, or villains, or our teams anymore, this is about winning this tournament. Like it or not, at least for the duration of the competition, we're teammates now, and I don't know about you, but I hate losing. That said, we need to work together, just like the robot and samurai are doing."

"What're you talking about?"

"They work as a team, building off of each other and exploiting each of our weaknesses, which is why they are kicking our asses. I'm willing to put our differences aside to help you, but if you don't help me the same way, we're going to lose."

"No, seriously, what are you talking about? Those two metal heads aren't working together any more than we are. If anything, they simply agreed on which opponent they wanted to fight. Any couple of idiots could've done that. Hell, we do that all the time", said Mammoth in reference to his team back in Jump City. "They're not building off of each other, they just picked a target out of obligation."

"What do you mean, "obligation"?"

"Are you telling me you _seriously_ haven't caught on yet?"

"Caught onto what?"

"The teams are all rigged."

"How so?"

"I chose to fight Mr. Roboto because I knew that he and I were the two powerhouses of our teams, so he would most likely come after me. Meanwhile, you and the samurai are naturally speedy, and therefore were most likely to square off between the four of us."

"Okay, but what does—", I began to ask him before making a realization. It turned out that Mammoth was absolutely right. Each of the eight teams of the tournament consisted of Champions that represented either speed or power (examples (respectively): Xing Xang and Madame Nebula, Rico and Rey, Jaglia and Starsmash).

Upon realizing that, I also realized that Mammoth was also correct about our opponents' lack of teamwork as well. They were simply fighting independently by focusing their attention on one opponent at a time. The only reason it was working was because they didn't require communication between each other. JT006 hardly spoke (and whenever he did it was sometimes difficult to translate), and Roninjitsu didn't speak at all. They each excelled in one-on-one battles, which would also explain why they were easily outmaneuvered whenever Mammoth and I intervened. Team attacks were their weakness.

"Ho-ly shit", I began having finally understood what Mammoth was getting at. "Mammoth, you're a genius."

"I am", asked a slightly shocked Mammoth. I immediately noticed a change in his attitude towards me upon me calling him a genius, though I didn't draw attention to it.

"You just single-handedly discovered the fatal flaw that these two possess. They can't handle the two of us at once, which is all the more reason why we need to work together, and why I need you to fill me in on any more ideas you got." Mammoth hesitated for a moment, but then smirked smugly before speaking again.

"Well, I do have _one_ more idea."

"Let's hear it", I said as I used my powers to probe through his mind, to a memory of Mammoth's first encounter with the Teen Titans. Back then, there were only five Titans, and only three H.I.V.E. members, Mammoth himself, Gizmo, and a girl with light-gray skin and pink hair, who was apparently their leader at the time.

Her hair was shaped like a horseshoe, sticking out just a little bit at the tips, with metallic black bands near the top. Her eyes matched her hair color, with pupils shaped like a cat's. She also had small, oval shaped, pink cheek blushes. Her attire consisted of a black, long-sleeved dress with purple centered bands with bottom cut like a clichéd witch's. She also had purple and black striped leggings under her dress, black platform boots with purple soles, and a black collar with a purple charm on it around her neck.

"Whoa", I said in an awed tone upon exiting Mammoth's mind, impressed by the memory I just witnessed.

"Think you can pull that off?"

"If I can get the robot to shoot at me again, then yeah. Meanwhile, see what you can do to slow down the samurai."

"Be ready to take notes", teased Mammoth with a chuckle as he cracked his knuckles.

"Alright, let's do this", I said as I summoned the white light again. As it flashed, we soon found ourselves back on top of the Cherry Blossom Plateau (that's what I decided to call the battlefield), with Roninjitsu on the attack as he began to charge at us. I responded to this by Changing into my bear form and rushing at the samurai as I summoned another aura shield, but with a twist. Rather than create a bubble-like shield as I usually did, I created a window-like shield and placed it in front of me as I ran behind it with the intent of bulldozing through our opponents.

As I ran towards the samurai, I could hear Mammoth running close behind me. Once I reached Roninjitsu, the two of us became locked in a power struggle as his sword clashed with my shield, causing me to stop in my tracks as we pushed into each other. That said, Mammoth then initiates his part of the plan leaping onto my back, and then diving up, and over my shield. Roninjitsu, completely stunned and shocked from our surprise team attack, hesitated as Mammoth dove towards him, only to deliver a massive left hook across the side of his face. The samurai was then thrown through the air to his left, dropping his sword in the process as Mammoth tucked and rolled into a landing. Upon seeing this, JT006 then makes a mad dash towards Mammoth with his right fist drawn back.

 _Oh, no you don't_ , I thought to myself with a snarl as I Changed back into my wolf form, deactivated my shield, and then launched myself at the robot from Mammoth's back just as he did mine. "Thunder Clap", I roared as I separated my arms, cloaked my paws with electricity, and then clapped the sides of JT006's head as if he had ears, causing him to sputter for a brief moment due to the voltage. While he was still stunned, and while I was still airborne, I then added to the pressure by pushing him backwards with my signature attack. "Morado Laser", I roared as the purple aura beam fired from my torso and threw the metal man through the air, crashing onto his back several feet in front of us.

"Do you _have_ to do that", asked Mammoth to me in response to my use of attack names.

"Hey it's what I do, okay? Don't judge me", I retorted.

"Too late", he teased as he rushed over to tend to Roninjitsu. As he did so, I noticed JT006 beginning to rise to his feet.

"Target range in", he said just before firing another missile at Mammoth. In response to this, as I saw his attack coming this time, I shot a Shadow Ball at it, causing it to explode before reaching its target, grabbing the robot's attention as he looked over at me.

"Up here, you bucket of bolts", I taunted as I Changed into my armored form as rose into the air to hover. My original plan was to fly around and bombard him with a series of aerial attacks in an attempt to force him to fire his missiles at me. However, things took a slightly difficult turn as JT006 responded by standing at attention with his palms facing the ground. Once he was in position, rocket thrusters began to fire out of his palms, and feet, causing him to propel himself into the air. "Oh, come on", I complained in annoyance upon discovering that JT006 could apparently fly, causing me to take off like a jet as he began chasing me through the air.

"Firing missiles-aircraft anti", said the robot as he fired what was apparently a special series of missiles at me. I soon discovered why these missiles were specifically used against enemy aircrafts, because as each one exploded around me, it sent out an electrical pulse, which both stunned and discombobulated me as I struggled to fly correctly through the barrage of electrical attacks. When the assault had finally ended, I launched my counterattack.

"Howling Darkness", I roared as I fired my stream of dark energy at JT006. Upon making contact, my attack engulfed the robot in a cloud of smoke. Thinking that I had defeated him, my guard was let down temporarily, giving him enough of an opening to rush at me through the smoke and deliver a punch to my sternum, sending me spiraling downward due to the force of his attack. As I fell, the world began to slow down again as I looked over and noticed Mammoth's battle with Roninjitsu, who had unfortunately regained possession of his sword.

It was at this point I noticed that Mammoth had a unique, and brilliant defensive strategy for fighting the samurai, who was clearly the faster, and more combat-trained of the two combatants. Rather than mirror Roninjitsu's attacks move-for-move, or partake in a battle of speed to try and outmaneuver him (both of which are strategies I had attempted), Mammoth had a more direct approach. Knowing that he didn't have the training, speed, or otherwise means of outmaneuvering the samurai as I tried to do, Mammoth used his body as a defensive weapon. Each time Roninjitsu swung his sword, or otherwise attacked him, Mammoth would immediately estimate and predict the point of impact, and the swing back with his fists and feet, reducing the amount of damage he would've received from his much faster opponent, while simultaneously inflicting damage himself.

 _He's not the only one with tricks up their sleeve_ , I thought to myself as I began falling faster, revealing to me that the world had returned to its normal speed. Using the fall to my advantage, I opened up a shadow portal underneath me and fell into it. Once in the Shadow Zone, I opened another portal to the robot's right, and then flew out of it as I charged at him. "Shadow Blitz", I roared as my body became encased in my aura just before I slammed into my opponent, effectively stunning him as I drove him backwards.

JT006 responded to my assault by slamming his metal forearms on my back in an attempt to get me to stop pushing. When I couldn't take anymore abuse, I was forced to teleport away from him, reappearing directly behind him as I wrapped my left arm around his neck, putting him in a chokehold (not that he _could_ choke).

"Thunder Claw", I growled as shanked the claws on my right paw into the back of the robot, sending volts of electricity throughout his robotic insides upon my claws tearing through the metal.

"Warning: error system! Power overload! Danger! Danger", said JT006 as his body began to shake uncontrollably in my grasp. After a few moments of electrical abuse, the robot's rocket thrusters shorted out, which gave me the opportunity to permanently ground him.

"Look out below", I hollered as I Seismic Tossed the large robot down towards the two combatants down below us. Before he hit the ground, as he fell, JT006 unleashed one more attack in an attempt to shoot me out of the sky.

"Now seekers heat launching", he said as he unleashed a barrage of several heat-seeking missiles ("several" in the sense that it was more than ten, and I wasn't about to stick around to count them) just before crashing into the ground.

"Uh, Mammoth", I asked aloud as I took off like a jet in an attempt to outrun the missiles.

"A little busy right now", grunted Mammoth as he continued to battle Roninjitsu. "Can't it wait?"

"No! It can't", I roared at him in response as I flew past him around the border of what remained of the tree line, flying low enough so he could see the missiles chasing me to prove my point. I then shot straight into the air as I flew up higher, and higher, until I was directly over the center of the plateau. I then teleported further below the trail of missiles, giving me a moment to catch my breath before the adjusted their course and chased me again. As I dove down towards the plateau, I let out a howl, alerting my teammate that I was coming in hot. "I'm open! Pass the ball", I hollered to Mammoth as I got closer, and closer to the ground.

Mammoth responded by blocking another one of the samurai's attacks with one arm, and then striking him with a swift punch to the fast with his opposite fist. Once Roninjitsu was stunned, Mammoth then reached forward and grabbed the samurai's throat, swung him around a bit, and then tossed him up to me as I continued to shoot downward, the missiles still close behind.

"Shoot it", hollered Mammoth as he rushed over towards us, preparing to get in position.

"Shadow Punch", I snarled as I punched the flying samurai with a cloaked fist, sending him crashing on top of his robotic teammate, who was still lying on the ground after crashing. "Incoming", I hollered upon finally approaching the ground, only a few feet away from our opponents. Once there, I teleported away yet again, causing the missiles to explode upon making contact with the ground.

I then quickly reappeared in front of the several explosions, and then added onto the assault by initiating a Shadow Pulse attack, but with a twist. Rather than clap my cloaked paws together and creating a shockwave, like I usually did, this time I began with my cloaked paws close together in front of me, and then pulled them apart from each other to my sides, creating a different kind of wave as it carried both the force of the explosion, and the crumbling earth below us towards our opponents.

And finally, Mammoth finished off our team attack by leaping up and over, and landing in front of me, slamming his fists onto the cracks in the ground with a mighty roar as they traveled towards Roninjitsu, and JT006. As a result, what started off as only a portion of the earth beginning to crack instantly became the entire plateau beginning to cave in. The trees, the dojo, and our opponents themselves all began to fall into the falling rubble as the plateau began to collapse.

"Whoa", hollered Mammoth as he began to fall himself as the result of his own attack.

"Time to go", I said upon flying down and grabbing him by his pits. I then flew him up into the air as we watched the destruction of the battlefield, as well as everyone and everything on it at the time. "Whoa", I said upon taking in the destruction we caused.

"Think we overdid it?"

"Winners, Mammoth, and Wolfman", announced the Master as his voice echoed through the sky. In response to his announcement, two orbs of light shot out of the rubble and flew higher into the sky, which I assumed was supposed to represent Roninjitsu, and JT006 being taken away from the battlefield (or what was left of it). Once they were gone, there was another white flash, which wound up taking us back to the ballroom where the tournament began. Awaiting us there were Rey, Rico, Static, and Gear all having won their fights.

"Well done, Mon", said Rico as he and his partner waved at us upon entering the room.

"Whoa-ho-ho, check it out", said Gear as he began looking me over. He was apparently fond of my armored wolf form. "Those claws, that mane, that wingspan, do you mind", asked Gear to me as he grabbed one of my wings with his hands. I looked over to Static awkwardly in response to the question.

"It's better to get it out of his system as quickly as possible", said Static with a shrug. I nodded my head to him in response as I opened up my wings, letting Gear take in how big they were.

"Interesting, your wings share the same bone and membrane structure as the wings of bats. You wouldn't happen to be part-vampire now, would 'ya", asked Gear.

"Let's not get carried away", I warned him.

"Where's everyone else", asked Mammoth in reference to the fact that there were only three teams instead of the expected four in the room. Mammoth's question was then answered upon the arrival of another white flash, which resulted in Jinzo, and Larsun entering the room. "Oh", said Mammoth awkwardly upon having his question immediately answered.

"Well played, Champions", said the Master upon reappearing on top of the pedestal in another white flash. "You have survi-, rather made it to Round Two. As for the losers, they have all been returned home safely. But think not of the vanquished, my Champions, now you must rest, for tomorrow you face Round Two."


	3. Disqualified

As I slept in my bed, at least the one that the Master provided, I tossed and turned due to enduring yet another nightmare. However, something was very different about this particular nightmare. Usually I would expect my nightmare to be haunted by the creepy voice of "the Great Evil", or maybe the voice of the evil spirit I summoned back in the meadow, but that wasn't the case this time. It started off with darkness, pitch-black darkness. I couldn't see anything, but I could hear two voices, only one of which I recognized.

"But, my friends told me you're—", began Terra before being interrupted by the second voice. This second voice was cold, and dark, to the point where it gave me chills. This second voice alone was truly the stuff of nightmares.

"You don't really believe they're your friends, do you, Terra?"

"They took me in, gave me a home."

"And when they find out what's wrong with you, they'll reject you, like everyone else."

"Beast Boy—", began Terra again.

"—can't keep his mouth shut forever", continued the cold voice as he finished her sentence. "He'll tell them."

"He promised", retorted Terra with some growing aggression in her tone.

"He lied."

"Shut up", hollered Terra as what sounded like a cyclone could be heard. "Just shut up, and leave, me, alone!" Terra then let out a horrified gasp before continuing. "Don't lose control. Don't lose control", she chanted to herself.

"Now, Terra, how can you lose something, you never had?" Terra then lets out a scream, which echoed through my mind until finally there was a flash of white, and my vision returned. When I came to, I was standing on all fours in my wolf form in what appeared to be the mine tunnels where we fought the Puppet King. I licked my muzzle, revealing to me that I had just completed a kill, as the taste of someone else's blood lingered on my tongue. I look over to my right to see Starfire, Cyborg, and Robin, all with horrified looks on their faces.

"Guys, I—", I began as I rose to my hind legs in an attempt to try and explain my actions. In response to my sudden movement, Robin drew his bo-staff, Cyborg pointed one of his cannons at me, and Starfire's fists began to glow green.

"Stay back", warned Robin as he pointed his staff at me.

"How could you", asked Starfire to me as her voice began to break. Heartbroken upon hearing her tone of voice, I took a step backwards, stopping upon feeling my paw hit something, or in this case, some _one_. As I turned around and looked down at my paws, I gasped in horror, as I recognized the three mutilated carcasses that laid before me covered in their own blood.

The first was Terra, with her cold, dead eyes looking out into the abyss as her neck had been snapped. The second was Raven, with her eyes rolled to the back of her head and her throat ripped out. And as if that wasn't bad enough, there was the third body, me. Lying before me, next to the dead bodies of both Raven, and Terra, was the body of my human form, with a bashed-in skull, a gaping gash along my ribs, and both of my eyes missing due to them being clawed out.

"No", I said to myself with a slight gag, as I felt I was going to throw up. I was just about to ask how and why I was standing over my own dead body, but that was when I noticed my paws, and the horrible realization that came with them. The scary part wasn't the blood dripping from and staining my werewolf paws. The scary part, was the fact that my paws were larger than normal, as well as the fact that the fur on them was green instead of black. "No", I repeated to myself as I dropped to my knees, unable to say anything else.

"Perhaps it is better zis way", said a familiar, smug voice. I then looked up to see Mallah, loading his plasma-zooka as he approached me. "Pity such strength is wasted on fools such as you", he continued as he pointed his weapon right at my face.

"NO", I screamed in both horror, and agony just as the weapon fired. The last thing I remember was a brief, flash of red. "Ahhhhh", I screamed in terror upon waking from my nightmare in a sweat. However, once again something was wrong. I didn't wake up in my bed. Instead, I woke up on the ground, in my human form, in the weird, red and black, outer space dimension I often visited whenever I dreamt. "Oh, come the fuck on", I complained in irritation. It was bad enough I even had that nightmare, but based on the fact that I technically hadn't woken up yet, there was still some more bullshit to endure before doing so. My complaining came to a halt upon hearing the sound of Kendall giggling. "Fine", I began reluctantly as I rose onto my feet, "where to now?"

"The Omen", whispered the voice of the cloaked woman from an unknown location. In response to her words, the drop-off of the land strip I was on magically produced both a gateway, and a path leading to it off to the right. It was like that moment in "Kingdom Hearts II" when you beat a world/level, resulting in a new one magically appearing on the map.

The gateway consisted of a stone archway, and two statues, each standing on each side. The statues were in the shape of two four-eyed men with a single arm. The statue on the right was missing his left arm and had a face representing triumph, and the statue on the left was missing his right arm and had a face representing tragedy.

"Not those creepy things again", I complained. "Is there another option?"

"The Dark Lord", whispered the woman again as another path, and gateway appeared directly in front of me. This gateway looked like the gateway to a haunted mansion, complete with a tall, fence-like set of doors, engraved with the image of a crescent moon on them. Above the gateway, was a dark storm cloud with lightning surging from it as the sound of thunder could be heard.

"Gee, both choices look _so_ inviting", I said sarcastically.

"The True Alpha", continued the woman as a third, and final set of a gateway, and path appeared off to the left. This gateway was similar to the previous gateway, except this new gate was shiny, as if it had been recently polished. It also had vines and flowers growing at the top of it, as well as four topiary animals guarding its entrance, two on each side. On the left were the topiary images of a tiger, and a gorilla, and on the right were the topiary images of an elephant, and a kangaroo. Before I had the chance to officially choose which path to take, my decision was made for me as the sound of the dove cooing could be heard, as a trail of white feathers rained down onto the far left path, stretching from me to the gate.

"No arguments here", I said as I began walking towards the gate of greenery. Once there, I opened the gate and walked through, immediately consumed by another white light upon doing so. When the light had passed, I found myself inside what looked to be a giant cage hanging in the air.

As I looked above, below, and around the outside of the cage wall I was currently facing, I immediately took note of the fact that despite the cage hanging from a long chain, I couldn't see through the darkness where the chain connected to, nor could I see past the dark abyss which the cage hung in, meaning that I could've been hanging over a bottomless pit for all I knew. And to make matters worse, upon looking myself over, I once again found myself with green skin, and a purple wardrobe.

"I immediately regret this decision", I muttered to myself in irritation upon being in Beast Boy's body for the third time.

"Beast Boy, versus Wildebeest", announced the Master of Games from an unknown location.

"Say what", I asked aloud, confused as to why I was seemingly fighting in another round of the tournament in Beast Boy's body. My attention was pulled behind me upon hearing someone snort. I slowly, and cautiously turned to see what appeared to be a wildebeest, just as the Master had implied, but with a twist.

He stood at a height of seven feet, stood on two legs, had human/ape-like hands and fingers, wore a superhero-style jumpsuit with armor around his neck (though it didn't cover his mane), and horns (it was worth noting that instead of normal wildebeest horns, this animal had horns that stood straight up), wore blue pants (he seemed to lack a tail for some reason), and a pair of boots on his feet. Just like Mallah was presumably once upon a time a normal gorilla that was later mutated, the being that stood before me, also trapped in the cage I was in, was apparently a mutated result of what was once an everyday, African wildebeest.

"Let the contest, begin", continued the Master, urging my large opponent to begin our battle as he rushed at me with a roar-like bellow. Knowing that I needed every possible advantage against Wildebeest (I was standing with my back to a corner), I responded to his assault by morphing into a bat at the last second just before he reached me. As the cage began to swing from its chain, due to Wildebeest ramming into one of the walls, I immediately made a break for the opposite wall behind him with the intention of flying out through one of the holes in the cage. My escape plan however, failed as I wound up flying face-first into some kind of invisible force field, making it clear that I wasn't allowed to leave the cage under any circumstance.

" _Fan-tucking-fastic"_ , I groaned to myself after slamming into the force field. My thoughts were interrupted as I noticed Wildebeest reaching to grab at me, having recovered from his failed attack attempt. _"Whoa"_ , I shrieked as I dodged his sneak attack. I then proceeded to fly around him in circles, only to then restrain the big brute as I morphed into an anaconda (again, I couldn't help but feel envious of Beast Boy's abilities knowing that my snake form was a dwarf in comparison).

As a result, Wildebeest loses his balances and falls over, giving me the opening I needed to begin crushing him, as this was a standard hunting technique for snakes in general. Normally, my prey would be struggling to free themselves from my grip, ultimately making my grip tighter the more they struggled, but Wildebeest was much more intelligent than I gave him credit for.

Rather than waste his energy struggling against my grip, he simply stops moving all-together, essentially playing dead. Like a dumbass, I interpret his actions as a sign of giving up or simply being overpowered, so I respond by morphing into a gorilla with the intention of putting him in a chokehold. This gave Wildebeest, again having saved his energy, the opening he needed to throw me off of him, sending me crashing into the wall behind us in the process as the cage swung yet again. His assault continues, while I was still stunned, by charging at me again, except this time I didn't have the energy to dodge. This resulted in Wildebeest crashing me through the cage, despite the fact that the cage was reinforced with a force field, as the top half of my body was hanging out of the hole in the wall of the cage, with Wildebeest pinning me down.

" _Don't tell Raven"_ , I said to him jokingly (I assumed he was still enough of an animal to understand me) as I morphed into a skunk by his feet. Before he had a chance to react, I pointed my rear at him, lifted my tail, and fired. The 400-pound mutant growled in both agony, and disgust as his nostrils became filled with, for lack of the scientific term, "skunk juice". As an added bonus, Wildebeest became temporarily blinded due to his eyes beginning to water, giving me the opportunity I needed to morph again as I prepared for another attack. When Wildebeest regained his eyesight, he panicked slightly upon discovering that I morphed into a lion, an animal that, under normal circumstances, would see Wildebeest as a delicious meal.

This moment of panic didn't last long as he quickly remembered that he was a mutant upon me lunging at him. That said, he responded to my attack by grabbing me out of the air by my throat and stomach, and then slamming me on the floor behind him on my back. Before I had a chance to recover, he then reaches down, picks me back up, and locks himself into a bear hug from behind me (a small taste of ironic karma from when I attempted to put him in a chokehold).

To emphasize just how stupidly strong and powerful Wildebeest was, from within that single bear hug, it took me morphing into a crocodile, then a bear, then a rhino, and finally an elephant, to escape his grip on me, an even then, he still managed to use the momentum of my last morph to throw me over his shoulder. He was like a bigger, more primal version of Mammoth, which said _a lot_ considering how much of a primal monster man Mammoth already is.

 _Okay, fuck this_ , I thought to myself in irritation upon recovering from Wildebeest's last attack. I then responded by morphing into an animal I _knew_ he couldn't beat, a motherfuckin' t-rex. The worried look on the mutant's face as I roared down at him was absolutely priceless. Unfortunately for me, the moment, and the battle itself, immediately came to an end upon the floor of the cage breaking underneath me, causing me to fall through. To this day I still call bullshit on that, because I still find it impossible to believe that that cage, reinforced with a force field, mind you, was strong enough to withstand to force of multiple mutant attacks, to the point where Wildebeest had to resort to using the both of us as battering rams in order to make a hole in a single wall, but then in the same breath has such a fragile weight limit that a t-rex merely standing in it causes the floor, and nothing else, to break open. Anyway, to wrap up how the find ended, the floor broke open, I fell through, was forced back into my/Beast Boy's human form in the process, and then before I could react or recover, the Master zaps me away in the same fashion he did to JT006 and Roninjitsu earlier, indicating that I lost the fight. What followed immediately after was the _truly_ weird part.

Instead of being zapped home like the Master claimed would happen if a Champion lost a fight, I found myself falling into a crimson red cyclone. It was as if I had fallen into the eye of a red tornado over a bottomless pit, as I could literally see nothing but red as I continued to fall endlessly, that is with the exception of the three others that were falling and screaming with me. The first of which was the only one I recognized, who was none other than Gizmo, leader of the H.I.V.E. Five, and by far the most agonizingly annoying kid I had ever met.

As for the other two, the first one I noticed was a rather handsome-looking, kinda Hispanic-looking guy that looked to be about Robin's age. He wore a blue, and black turtleneck unitard with white zig-zag patterns all over it. He also had long, black hair that ran down to his shoulders, and he seemed fairly muscular. The other guy had yellow, and red skin (almost like he was made of magma), with white eyes, and a bald head. His uniform consisted of a dark red one piece, with a big, red collar. Before I could focus too much on the others, I overheard the Master's voice as I noticed we were falling closer and closer to something beneath us.

"Oh, what a _marvelous_ game", he chuckled to himself in a sinister fashion as it turned out we were closing in on his giant head. He then began to laugh maniacally as he opened his mouth, and the four of us fell into it, bringing my bizarre nightmare to an end as I shot awake in my bed, soaking with sweat, and gasping for air. Before I even had the chance to complain about enduring a nightmare _within_ a nightmare, I began wincing in pain as my chest and forehead began to burn.

"What's, happening", I asked aloud in between breaths as I stumbled out of head and walked over to the mirror in my room (which was made to resemble the average Earth hotel room). Through the darkness as I looked in the mirror, I could see spirals two, and four burning on my chest through my uniform, and my crown burning on my forehead. It was at this point I also noticed my brown eyes forcibly turning yellow, as if my body itself was reacting to something in the air. Eventually, after a good three minutes of pain, the glowing ceased, as did the burning. "Something's very wrong here", I said to myself aloud, immediately taking the hint that something was going on with this tournament. My thoughts were interrupted upon someone knocking at my door.

"*snarl, snarl, snarl?"

"Rey?"

"*low growl."

"Just a second", I replied as I walked over to the door and slid it open. "What's up", I asked the nahual as he looked up and down the hallway as if he was being followed.

"*low snarl, growl, growl, snarl."

"You felt it, too, huh?" Rey simply nodded in response. "Any idea what we're dealing with here?"

"*growl, snarl, snarl", he responded as he pointed to his forehead, in reference to the fact that he sensed my crown burning from his room, alerting him of the disturbance we sensed.

"Yeah, turns out it wasn't _just_ a headache from before. There's something screwy about this tournament."

"*low, sharp growl!"

"We can't do that."

"*growl?"

"Waking everybody up now without knowing what we're dealing with here only puts us in more danger. If all eight of us go rushing in blind, it'll be a disaster."

"*snarl, snarl", corrected Rey.

"What do you mean, "seven"?" In response to my question, Rey simply points further down the hallway from which he came, to another bedroom door as it stood wide open. I then used my x-ray vision to look into the room, only to find that Rey was correct. Mammoth was gone. "Well, shit."

"*snarl, growl, snarl?"

"We'll split up and look for him. You go that way", I began as I pointed down towards where Rey had come, "and I'll go this way", I continued as I pointed in the opposite direction. "Be careful, and try to conserve your magic (Rey, like most nahuals practiced voodoo magic, though it was a rarity for Rey as he preferred a more direct approach in combat). If this tournament _is_ foul play, we'll need to be ready to bust outta here."

"*low, extended growl", replied Rey with a nod as his eyes began to glow yellow. In response, his body became cloaked in a magical aura, turning him invisible as he stalked down the hallway in search of Mammoth.

"Good luck", I said to myself aloud just before Changing into my wolf form and stalking down the hall in the other direction. The labyrinth of hallways reminded me a lot of Killer Moth's lair as I soon found myself having absolutely no idea where I was going. "Ugh, I've been stalking down a dark halfway for almost an hour, and I haven't found Mammoth, or any clues as to what's going on. I'm starting to think this idea was stupid", I grumbled to myself in irritation.

 _Do not give up so easily_ , said the cloaked woman to me telepathically as I began sensing something coming from further down the hall I was currently in on the left wall. As I moved further and further down, I began noticing that the energies I was sensing was coming from a certain, small section of the wall, causing my crown to reappear on my forehead as it began burning yet again.

By the way, in case you're wondering what my crown is, do you remember Pharaoh Atem from "Yu-Gi-Oh!"? Remember how whenever he sensed something magical nearby, a golden light would appear on his forehead in the shape of the Eye of Udjat? Well that was basically my crown in a nutshell, except it was purple and was in the shape of a crescent moon, aka my Elemental Symbol. It's something of a birthmark as it appeared the day I was born, signifying that I was an Elemental, but sometimes it has a mind of its own, showing up and sometimes burning me whenever it sensed something amiss in the air. Usually it doesn't bother me much as my natural animal instincts usually negate it, but this particular time was different, as it seemed to be in-sync with my spirals, which had never happened before.

Once I reached the special section of the wall, I rose to my hind legs and placed one of my paws on it. This resulted in the tiny section of the wall pushing backwards slightly, and then sliding behind the rest of the wall to my left, revealing a secret door as it did so.

"Go, Me", I said to myself with a slight chuckle as I Changed back into my human form and walked inside. Once there, I found a small room consisting of nothing but a giant computer to the right of the doorway, leaned up against the wall (much like the giant computers in Fixit's Workshop). As I walked over to the computer, the secret wall door closed behind me, once again concealing its existence to strangers. It was at this point I noticed that at the top of the computer, sticking out of the top of the screen, was what looked like a hand mirror, one that looked exactly like the one in Raven's room, except this one was black instead of gray, and it had a red aura-like glow around it.

"That's not a good sign", I said to myself in reference to the fact that the computer, and mirror looked like a fusion between technology, and magic, which is a dangerous combination if you think about it too much. Despite that however, I continued forward towards the computer and positioned myself at the keyboard. Once the computer turned on, the first thing it asked for was a password. "That figures", I growled in irritation as I had no earthly idea what the password could be.

 _Allow me_ , said the cloaked woman again as I noticed the letter "T" on the keyboard began to glow white. In hesitation, I looked around the room as if expecting to see her somewhere nearby.

"I hope you know what you're doing", I said as I hesitantly pushed her recommended button. She then encouraged me to spell out the rest of the password with the letters, "R", "I", "G", "O", and "N". "Trigon", I asked aloud in confusion as it seemed like a rather strange password. My thoughts were interrupted upon the computer accepting the password, granting me access to its database. I then clicked utilized its search engine as I typed in, "Tournament of Unity". In response to my typing, the computer then pulled sixteen pictures (four rows of four), with each picture being of one of the tournament's Champions, in the order they were introduced via the Master's jumbotron.

"Huh? Wonder what this does", I continued as I noticed a button underneath the sixteen pictures that read, "Bracket", and clicked it. In response, the sixteen pictures were then paired off, and arranged in a tournament bracket system in the order each match was announced in the last round. This didn't really tell me anything new aside from the fact that Mammoth, and I were set to fight Static, and Gear in the next round. Other than that, it basically retold me which eight moved on past Round One, and which eight didn't, information I already knew. "Well that wasn't very helpful", I said as I then clicked on Mammoth's picture, which then pulled up his bio.

"Let's see here. "Name: Baran Flinders. Codename: Mammoth. Date of Birth: November 19th, 1991. Hometown: Albany, Austrailia. Species: Human. Sub-Species: N/A. Abilities: Superhuman strength, stamina, and durability. Class: N/A.". Well, that didn't tell me a whole lot either", I continued as I clicked on a link that said, "More Details". In response, Mammoth's bio jumped to the next page, which contained a list of several related documents, which I initially ignored for the moment, and a series of "tags" indicating what categories Mammoth falls under. There were a total of five: "H.I.V.E. Five", "Jump City", "Unity", "Human", and "Gladiator". "Mammoth's a lot of things, but I don't know if I'd call him a gladiator", I said upon exiting out of Mammoth's data. It was at this point I remembered the Master mentioning two previous tournaments that took place before the one I was currently participating in.

"Ladies first", I said aloud jokingly as I typed, "Tournament of Heroines", in the search engine. As expected, since the current tournament consisted of teams, there were only eight Champions (two rows of four) who participated in this, and presumably the previous tournament. What _was_ surprising, was the fact that in one way or another, I recognized every single Champion who participated in the Tournament of Heroines. The eight female Champions, from left to right, top to bottom, consisted of Terra, the orange bird-woman that Gear was fighting in his introduction footage, Raven, one of my "twin" cousins Keira, or Roxanne (there was no way to tell from just the photo), Shebang, the girl with pink hair I saw in Mammoth's memories, Starfire, and Permafrost. The eight lovely ladies, much like me and the other Tournament of Unity Champions, each came with their own introduction footage, compliments of the Master of Games as there was a little video introducing them all.

"Terra, the terrakinetic she-devil who can bend the very planet to her will. Talon, a screeching, high-flying, bird of prey. Raven, a powerful sorceress from the depths of the Underworld. Roxanne, a phoenix of a black swan who truly knows how to ruffle some feathers. Shebang, the Olympic-leveled, gymnast-trained, one-woman army. Jinx, the trickster enchantress that gives "bad luck" an entirely new meaning. Starfire, the tank-like powerhouse from another world. And Permafrost, the ice-cold snow queen with the power to recreate the Ice Age", said the Master through the video.

"So, Talon, and Jinx", I began to myself upon learning the names of the bird-woman, and pink-haired girl. "And I guess Roxanne was in the driver's seat for this tournament", I continued in reference to the video specifying which of my cousins participated. Before I resumed my search for answers, I satisfied my curiosity and opened Raven's profile. ""Name: Raven. Codename: N/A"." _I guess "Raven" is your real name._ ""Date of Birth: February 6th, 1996. Hometown: Azarath. Species: Mutant. Sub-Species: Half-demon. Abilities: Telekinesis, Thought Projection, Astral Projection, Levitation, Dark Magic. Class: Level 5". Eh, wasn't expecting much else", I continued as I pulled up Terra's profile.

 _Okay, let's see. "Name: Princess Tara Markov". Wait, what? Terra's a princess? Of what? And come to think of it, does Raven have a last name_ , I thought to myself as I began to trail off topic for a moment. Eventually I managed to regain focus and continued reading. _"Codename: Terra. Date of Birth: December 26_ _th_ _, 1993. Hometown: Markovia". Never heard of it. "Species: Mutant. Sub-Species: Elemental. Abilities: Terrakinesis. Class: Level 5"._ As I finished reading her profile, I noticed that one of Terra's tags also said "Gladiator". "How is Terra a gladiator", I asked aloud in confusion as I clicked on the "Bracket" button. Because this tournament had been completed, it offered me full details on the pairings and outcomes.

The first matchup was Raven versus Jinx (which ended in Raven's victory), then Starfire versus Shebang (which ended in Shebang's victory), then Permafrost versus Roxanne (which ended in Permafrost's victory), and finally, Terra versus Talon (which obviously ended in Terra's victory). After that, the pairings get weird as, according to the bracket, Raven was apparently disqualified, meaning Terra went on to defeat both Shebang _and_ Permafrost in three-woman battle royale.

"That's odd", I said upon not finding any information explaining why exactly Raven was disqualified from her tournament. Eventually I simply moved on the "Tournament of Heroes" as I typed into the search engine. Much to my surprise, I once again recognized most of the eight Champions that participated. Unsurprisingly, three of the eight Champions included Robin, Cyborg, and Beast Boy. What _was_ surprising however, was the fact that four of the five remaining Champions (the only one I didn't recognize was a red-haired archer with a mask like Robin's) consisted of Gizmo, and the three nameless Champions from my nightmare (the long-haired dude dressed in blue, the magma-skinned guy, and Wildebeest). Confused and eager to find out answers, I clicked on their tournament introduction video.

"Robin, the combat-equipped, Kung-Fu-trained, one-man army. Hot Spot, a human flamethrower with a fiery temper to match. Cyborg, the high-tech, teen, fighting machine. Aqualad, a water-breathing telepath with mastery over surf, and sea. Wildebeest, 400 pounds of primal, heroic fury. Gizmo, the nasty, little boy with a really _big_ brain. Beast Boy, a quick-witted changeling who could turn into any animal. And Speedy, the agile archer with an unstoppable arsenal of energy arrows."

It was at this point I began getting a bit concerned. As I had learned as of late, my dreams seemed to be connected to future events or otherwise relevant events. That said, is was _way_ too coincidental that I had a dream about Hot Spot, Aqualad, Wildebeest, and Gizmo, in fact is was downright spooky, and it didn't stop there. I also went ahead and checked out the tournament's bracket, where I discovered that one of the matches for the tournament's first round consisted of Beast Boy versus Wildebeest, which ended in Wildebeest's victory.

Not only that, but there was video footage of each individual fight, which is how I discovered that Beast Boy, move for move, fought and lost against Wildebeest in the _exact_ same way he/I did in my dream. Not only _that_ , but in addition to Wildebeest, Robin, Cyborg, and Speedy all proceeded to the second round, meaning that Hot Spot, Gizmo, and Aqualad were knocked out of the tournament along with Beast Boy, as implied by my dream. Not only _that_ , the bracket also revealed that at some point between Rounds One and Two, Cyborg was disqualified without any documented explanation, which meant Robin went on to defeat both Wildebeest, _and_ Speedy singlehandedly, which sets up a parallel to the Tournament of Heroines considering the circumstances surrounding Terra's victory, and Raven's disqualification. And none of this was even addressing the fact that the Champions from each tournament were connected to several other Champions in some fashion.

"You're one, too", I asked aloud as I finished reading Wildebeest's profile, which basically confirmed what I suspected. Wildebeest was a Class 3 mutant with super strength, and endurance, who specialized in wrestling. In fact, he was part of the same underground wrestling circuit as Rey. However, what really grabbed my attention was the fact that Wildebeest was yet _another_ Champion that was labeled as a "gladiator". In response to this, I finally decided to look into the matter by clicking on the "Gladiator" tag, which resulted in listing every Champion that the Master labeled as a gladiator. "Repeat Shopper much", I asked sarcastically upon discovering that out of a total of thirty-two Champions, fourteen of us (Cyborg, Wildebeest, Beast Boy, Terra, Talon, Shebang, Permafrost, Mammoth, JT006, Jaglia, Starsmash, Bruno, Gear, and Static), were _all_ gladiators.

It was clear to me at this point that the Master had clearly developed a strong interest in all of us, enough of one that led him to spy on and study us, which only grew with each new tournament we organized. His first tournament, the Tournament of Heroes, alone consisted of three Titans, three gladiators, one H.I.V.E. member, three former apprentices of the Justice League (just as Robin was once a shadow of Batman, Aqualad, and Speedy were both once shadows to Aquaman, and Green Arrow respectively), and four enhanced persons residing from Jump City. From there, it's safe to assume that the Master exploited network connections between the original eight Champions, which is how he came across the second half of the Teen Titans (at the time), multiple Bang Babies, two more H.I.V.E. members, and so on.

"But what does this all mean? What's the bigger picture? And for what purpose did he bring us all here", I asked myself. There were _so_ many questions, and very few answers. However, my thoughts were interrupted upon picking up a familiar, rotting smell. "Bruno", I asked aloud in a whisper as I noticed the scent getting stronger, implying that somebody was getting closer. Upon realizing that, I made a quick attempt to exit out of all the data I pulled up, which caused me to accidentally open up another profile. "Shit", I said in frustration upon hearing the secret door beginning to open. With no time to cover my tracks, I Changed into my spider form and hid in the corner by cloaking myself with my aura.

"Hmmm", began the Master as he entered the room in a suspicious tone as his eyes scanned back and forth. In doing so, he noticed that his computer was on, and that a profile was pulled up. "It appears that another of my Champions is out of bed", said the Master to himself as he approached the computer. "I'm curious as to which Champion I will have to disqualify this time", he continued, which I assumed was a reference to Cyborg, and Raven. He then pulled both of our attentions away as he looked over the profile, which is when I snuck a peek at the name.

"Who's Kimera", I whispered to myself.

"Simply marvelous", chuckled the Master as he began looking through a series of what I guess were Kimera's files. One of them looked kind of like a blueprint, which referred to Kimera as "the perfect lifeform". "Oh, Project Gladiator, how you amuse me", continued the Master to himself. "While I am most grateful for the magnificent prizes you've given me, your arrogance does not suit you. For you see, _I_ am currently in possession of the ultimate lifeform, and by tournament's end, that title shall belong to me. Isn't that right, my friends", he asked his amulet as if expecting to respond. In response to his question, I noticed that the scent I detected was coming from his amulet. It was also at this point that my chest, and forehead (if spiders _had_ chests, and foreheads) began to burn yet again, alerting me of Star, and Julia's presence as well.

 _Star? Julia_ , I asked myself in my head as the Master turned off his computer and made his way to the exit. In response to this, I cautiously followed behind him. I followed him out of the room, down the hall, and back to the ballroom where the tournament first began. He then made his way to the center of the room while I remained in the shadows, as my concern was the fact that his two owls were perched above in the rafters, who both could spot me easier than the Master could. Once there, the Master began doing a series of front and backflips around the room, chuckling to himself as he did so. That wasn't the weird part. The weird part was the fact that his flips all resembled Xing Xang's fighting style, as implied from her intro footage. It got even weirder as the Master, in the middle of a flip, spreads his legs and begins spinning, resulting in him summoning, and then riding a small tornado around the room, much like Boomerang tended to do.

"What the Hell", I whispered to myself in both confusion, and shock.

"Magnificent", chuckled the Master to himself as he landed on both feet in the center of the room. He then grew two extra arms on the sides of his torso, both of which then proceeded to glow blue, similar to how Roninjitsu's blade glowed. "Absolutely magnificent prizes. Boomerang, Roninjitsu, Starsmash, Xing Xang. Now that the vanquished are in my possession, their powers are mine to command", he continued to gloat to himself, revealing to me the _true_ meaning of his tournament. He was simply a villain who wanted to take our powers for himself, and the tournament was just an inventive way of tricking us into weakening each other to allow him to do so. "I can scarcely wait to see what I win in Round Two", he continued to himself.

" _Now_ I remember you", said a familiar voice from behind the Master as he entered from another hallway. The Master then turned to see Mammoth as he approached him. "Jinx, and Gizmo told me about you. You're the guy who kidnapped them from another dimension."

"Hmmm, considering the previous two tournaments, I was certain that your partner would be the troublemaker, as were his two comrades", replied the Master as he revealed why Cyborg, and Raven were both disqualified. "Curious as to how you've regained your memories, though. Your leader ensured me that you wouldn't be able to."

"What're you talking about? And what is this tournament all about?"

"Due to Gizmo's failure to uphold his end of the bargain, I see no reason to continue lying to you, young Champion."

"What bargain?"

"It would appear that I'm going to have to spell this out for you. I was in need of a sixteenth Champion in order to hold my tournament, and your leader, graciously volunteered you."

"What", asked Mammoth in shock.

 _He did_ WHAT, I asked myself in my head upon also being shocked by the Master's statement.

"For some reason your leader is too happy with your membership within the H.I.V.E. Five, so he asked me to take of his little problem, in exchange, he wiped your memories of me clean. And without your former leader Jinx to remind you, you were just as clueless as the other Champions when the tournament began."

"So what? You were just going to kidnap me, too? Take away my strength to increase your own?"

"Originally, yes. But perhaps we can come to an agreement of sorts."

"What?"

 _WHAT_ , I repeated again in my head.

"You are not like the others. _I_ can appreciate the power you possess, and see your _true_ value. That said, I ask that you join me", began the Master as he offered Mammoth his hand. "Join me, and fight by my side, and you'll be given more power than you could possibly imagine. Together, we could bring your entire planet to its knees."

"But", began Mammoth hesitantly, "my friends", he continued as he turned his back, and hung his head in contemplation.

"Your creators abused you, your sister was taken from you, your mentors betrayed you, the H.I.V.E. Five has forsaken you, its previous leader has abandoned you, and your trusted teammate is also your mortal enemy. You have no friends, nor any reason to second guess my offer. Do _not_ be a fool, Mammoth. Prove your worth. Be more than a mindless brute."

 _Don't listen to him, Mammoth_ , I screamed in my head as if he could hear me. _He's wrong! You're not mindless!_

"I'm not mindless", said Mammoth sternly as he clenched his fists, almost as if he was repeating what I was mentally shouting at him.

"So then, do we have a deal, Friend", asked the Master, confident that his wordplay had won over Mammoth.

"It's like you said, I don't have any friends", retorted Mammoth just before spinning around and punching the Master in his sternum. "No deal, Monkey Boy. So consider this, "game over"."

"The game is _never_ over, young Champion. But I'm afraid that _you_ are _dis_ qualified", retorted the Master as two of his four arms suddenly turned into metal and fired missiles at Mammoth. The large man hollered in pain as the blast sent him flying backwards into the wall. The Master added on to his assault by firing a blast of blue aura-like energy from his hands at Mammoth. To both of their surprise, the blast was intercepted by Rey, as he reappeared in front of Mammoth and blocked the attack using his magical energies to cloak his arms to use as shields.

"*snarl, snarl", asked Rey to Mammoth as he reached behind him and offered him his hand.

"No idea what that means", began Mammoth as he was assisted onto his feet, "but thanks." Without another word, Rey then led the charge as he and Mammoth made a mad dash at the Master.

"Fools", said the Master calmly as his gray turned dark orange and became covered in spots. Upon seeing this, Rey hesitates, which gave the Master the opening he needed for a counterattack. Using Madame Nebula's fighting techniques, the Master lifted his leg high in the air, only to slam it onto the top of Rey's head. The assault then continued, while Rey stumbled due to being stunned, as the Master then delivered a swift kick to Rey's chest. The kick was so powerful it wound up sending Rey crashing into Mammoth, which then resulted in the two of them slamming back into the wall.

"Reymundo, you are _also_ hereby disqualified", continued the Master as red, tentacle-like energy streams shot out of his red amulet at the two Champions, much like what the Puppet King did with the Daemon Ritus. Upon making contact, the tentacles then wrapped around, and dragged both Rey, and Mammoth, body _and_ soul, back to the inside of the amulet, imprisoning them within it in the process. In response to their capture, the Master began cackling maniacally, just as he did in my nightmare. " _Never_ challenge the Master", he continued to the amulet as if he were speaking to Rey, and Mammoth. "I _always_ win", he chuckled to himself as his head turned into a jaguar head, and one of his arms became encased in a magical, yellow aura.

Horrified by what I had just witnessed, and completely unsure of what to do to stop him, I spun around and scampered back to my room in a panic. For the moment, it was all I could do.


End file.
